Tapas and Wine tour

Tonight we met up with our guide Andreas for our Tapas and wine tour.  There were supposed to be Terry and I and a family of five, but some of them had come down with food poisoning, so it was just the three of us. 

We met at the Plaza de Ville, where Andreas gave us a bit more history about this place.  The building on the left with the slanted roof is a cloister which is active and which the Nuns never leave.  They keep the windows closed and barred so they do not see how the world around them progresses,  Andreas says you can go to the back door during the day and buy cookies, which are baked by the Nuns.  I won't repeat the history from yesterday about the City Hall and Palace.

This is the oldest building built in the 1400's I think.

Ok we are off to our first tapas bar

Casa Paco

Founded in 1933 by Paco

Like Barcelona, the buildings are given a plaque if they are over one hundred years old.  Casa Paco's building was built in 1870.

In this historical tavern I tasted my first "Vermut de Grifo"

Vermouth on tap:  Fortified white wine flavored with various roots, herbs and spices and sweetened with caramel. It became popular over a century ago and has since become the traditional drink of the city. 

Paired with Bread, manchego cheese and  a Spanish omelette: "Tortilla española" is the most common gastronomic specialty. The original is made only with eggs, potatoes and onion. 

Many famous people have visited and met the original Paco.  His grandson now owns the tavern.  First picture lower right is a very young Robert Mitchum

I see Omar Sharif and Frank Sinatra was somewhere on this wall.

A hug and a thank you to our bartender for great service

Our second stop was La Traviesa

Andreas gets a table and tells the host bar what tapas he would like to pair with the wine that he himself provides.  He pays a corking fee to be able to bring his own wines.  We will find out that they are all great wines.

Cute place

Unusual pairing, Andreas favorite Moscatel: Victoria 2 by Jorge Ordonez.  Chosen best white wine in Spain by the Gourmets Wine Guide it is the only spanish wine that has been at the banquet of the Nobel Awards, the 10th of December of 2012, at the Blue Hall of Stockholm’s City Hall. 

Paired with cold cuts from a pig breed unique to Spain and Portugal: the Iberian breed.  When this breed is free range in an oak tree forest rich in acorns the result is the best pork in the world.  We had black Iberian ham and chorizo

Both were really good and the pairing with the raisin wine was delicious

We walked along the Cava Baja street (which follows the line of the old city walls) where there are many restaurants and bars,  At one time (before the wall became a street) the back walls of the establishments were the wall.

Andreas says this place has great fried pork, although we were not stopping here

This one is another great restaurant for a different pork dish, which I can't remember.  Foodie Terry probably will.

Got a picture of this cute place, just to show that Vermut de Grifo on tap is quite common

Next stop was a wine bar "Tempranillo

We had a toast with mushrooms and a garlic shrimp, and olives (althought Andreas pointed out that olives kill the wine) Ha.  The food was ok but not great.  The olives were actually good.

But...... a really great white wine, another 10; and my somewhat unsophisticated palate did not detect any killing of the wine. Ha.

Passed by this pretty little church on our way to the last bar

up the stairs

around the corner

and here we are at "Bahiana Club"

We decided to sit outside for this one and it was a beautiful night.

Next course please

A truly great red wine

The three of us ended up drinkig the entire bottle of this beauty, Finca Espollo 2009, a blend of Monastrell and Syrah grapes and rated 97 points by Gourmet guide.

paired with fried pork, potato omelet and carmelized pearl onions. Yum

The inside of this lovely bar

Bartender and waiter

and the we tried a wee bit of this  after dinner light wine

and then another we bit of "La Canada Pedro Ximenez"(raisin wine) rated 99 points by the Gourmets guide as the best sweet wine in the country

Good to the last drop and now we must find our way back to the hotel.  Yikes.  I generally do not consume this much wine in one night.  If I don't feel so good tomorrow, it will have been worth it.  A great evening with good food, wine and conversation.

Andreas walked us back almost all the way.  Once we were in an area we knew we told him we were good to go and he could leave us.  This was a great food and wine tour.  Very unusual for a guide to bring his own wines to the event.  Andreas is a one man show.  He does this four or five times a week and is very knowledgeable about wines and pairing them with different foods and he is a history buff who knows much of the history in the old district.  A really interesting guy who grew up on the outskirts of Madrid and has lived here all his life.  If you are every in Madrid, book this tour.  We booked through madridcitytours.com "Old Madrid Wine Tasting and Tapas Tour".  

This was by far our best night in Madrid.